Insurance Industry and Union Leaders Hail Howard Cooke

Late former Governor-General, His Excellency, the Most Hon. Sir Howard Cooke, is being hailed for his efforts to improve the condition of Jamaican workers, by widening basic pension benefits and enhancing the industrial relations climate.

Sir Howard, who was appointed Minister of Pension and Social Security, when the Michael Manley-led government won the 1972 elections, is credited as having extended the process started by the previous Minister of Labour and National Insurance, the late Hon. Lynden G. Newland, under whose tenure the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) was established.

“He deepened the process that Newland left,” recalls retired Custos of St. Mary, Hon. Bobby Pottinger, who at the time was Senior Executive Branch Manager at the Mutual Life Assurance Company.

“Newland did his best to get the NIS going, but it needed a lot of upgrading and coverage for families…Sir Howard set up all these offices around Jamaica, and people felt good about it. Whichever portfolio you put Howard in, he had a team spirit leadership; so his team always worked closely with him,” he states.

Sir Howard’s thrust to improve NIS coverage came from his vast knowledge and experience having held senior positions in the insurance industry. He was Senior Inspector and Branch Manager, Standard Life Insurance Company; Unit Manager, Jamaica Mutual Life; and Branch Manager, American Life Insurance Company (ALICO).

Head of the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE), Vincent Morrison, tells JIS News that the late former Governor-General always urged persons to save for the “rainy days,” and saw pension as “social economic benefit,” where, at the end of their working life, they would have some guaranteed income.

“Pension was very dear to Sir Howard’s heart. He not only pushed the issue from the perspective that he was in the insurance business, but he always talked about ‘rainy days.’ In a discussion I had with him, he said we have to save, because pension was not necessary a saving scheme; but a long-term benefit that every worker, and every Jamaican should have. He was very serious about it,” he says.

“Just before he became the Minister, he was a practising insurance man, so his knowledge of the insurance industry would have landed him in that position. It was a wise choice by Michael Manley. There can be no better honour to the great man, than to continue all that he stood for,” Mr. Morrison states.

Mr. Morrison, who at the time was President of the National Workers Union (NWU), says Sir Howard would also organise workers wherever he went. “You would get a call from him to say workers of (certain) factories, or workplaces wanted the union. He made a tremendous contribution,” he tells JIS News.

Mr. Pottinger, who met the late former Head of State in 1970, when Mutual Life acquired Standard Life, says Sir Howard’s work in insurance made Mutual Life the most favoured insurance company in Western Jamaica. “In 1979, Sir Howard was made Chairman of the Life Underwriters Association of Western Jamaica,” he informs.

Executive Director of the Insurance Association Jamaica (IAJ), Orville Johnson, notes that Sir Howard was “one of the early persons who went into the industry and brought a lot of respectability to the profession”.

“He served the industry well, with distinction, and respectability, and we will remember him for his contribution,” he tells JIS News.

Former Member of Parliament for South East St. Elizabeth, Derrick Rochester, who served as Sir Howard’s junior minister in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security in 1980, remembers the late former Head of State as one who worked to improve the industrial relations climate and improve conditions for workers.

“That was during the turbulent 1980s, when there were a number of unusual industrial relations problems, and we managed to…keep a lid on things. I found him to be an outstanding legislator, and a good Minister,” Mr. Rochester says.

The retired parliamentarian and trade unionist, who had responsibility for the Labour portfolio, says Sir Howard responded to his request in the 1980s to boost the industrial relations department at the Ministry, and that helped to control much of the problems of that period.

He recalls a visit by Sir Howard to the St. Elizabeth-based Hampton School, while he was Education Minister, and on seeing the living conditions of the then headmistress, he gave immediate instructions that a principal’s cottage be built.

“As a result, it was built in record time, and that principal and subsequent principals were afforded the dignity they deserve by being housed in a good (conditions),” he states.

On a personal level, Mr. Rochester says he benefited from the wisdom of Sir Howard, whom he met in 1969. “He was one who you could always rely on for proper advice and guidance. We have benefitted from his teachings, his comradeship,” he tells JIS News.

“His work in education, in the insurance business, in Parliament, as a Minister, and as Governor-General, should be carefully documented and made available to one and all, because the principles that guided his life could be an example for all of us,”

Mr. Rochester adds.

Mr. Pottinger says Sir Howard’s love for people is exemplified in the Governor- General’s Achievement Award scheme that he started, which “recognizes people who have served, and we have unearthed a number of them over these last 20 years.”

He also recalls a visit by the late former Governor-General to the Richmond Prison in St. Mary.

“They brought the 240 prisoners in an open room, and Howard Cooke made them feel like they were somebody. Tears were shed in that room, because they never expected somebody to make them feel that, although they were behind bars, they had a future, and they should aspire to come out and be part of the society,” the former Custos says.